Defending Standardized Testing - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805849122 ISBN 13: 9780805849127

Publisher: Psychology Press, 2005

Synopsis

The education reform movement of the past two decades has focused on raising academic standards. Some standards advocates attach a testing mechanism to gauge the extent to which high standards are actually accomplished, whereas some critics accuse the push for standards and testing of impeding reform and perpetuating inequality. At the same time, the testing profession has produced advances in the format, accuracy, dependability, and utility of tests. Never before has obtaining such an abundance of accurate and useful information about student learning been possible. Meanwhile, the American public remains steadfast in support of testing to measure student performance and monitor the performance of educational systems.

Many educational testing experts who acknowledge the benefits of testing also believe that those benefits have been insufficiently articulated. Although much has been written on standardized testing policy, most of the material has been written by opponents. The contributing authors of this volume are both accomplished researchers and practitioners who are respected and admired worldwide. They bring to the project an abundance of experience working with standardized tests.

The goal of Defending Standardized Testing is to:
*describe current standardized testing policies and strategies;
*explain many of the common criticisms of standardized testing;
*document the public support for, and the realized benefits of, standardized testing;
*acknowledge the limitations of, and suggest improvements to, testing practices;
*provide guidance for structuring and administering large-scale testing programs in light of public preferences and the "No Child Left Behind Act" requirements; and
*present a defense of standardized testing and a vision for its future.

Defending Standardized Testing minimizes the use of technical jargon so as to appeal to all who have a stake in American educational reform.

About this title

From the Author:

Although the American public is in favor of it, and it is also part of the administration of the No Child Left Behind Act, it would appear that the majority of professions in the field doubt if standardized testing is of much value in education. According to the contributors of these 12 essays, many objections to standardized testing are based on emotion or self-interest. They admit that standardized testing has limitations and suggest improvements but also maintain that the data from standardized testing is valuable at many levels. Coverage includes the history of standardized testing, the special case of high-stakes testing, the literature on benefits, misconceptions, typically unasked questions, "teaching to the test," and issues of ethnicity, disability and school accountability. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc.

The literature on standardized testing is dominated by criticism that standardization perpetuates inequality and inhibits reform. This collection documents public support for testing to measure student achievement and to gauge education systems. It avers the increased efficiency and utility of standardized instruments and attempts to more clearly articulate their advantages. Center for Instructional Materials and Computing, U. Wisconsin

About the Author:

Richard P. Phelps has devoted most of his working life to the world of education. His research work on testing has been published in Evaluation Review, the Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, and Educational and Psychological Measurement.

About this edition

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0805849122
• ISBN 13: 9780805849127
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 362
• Editor: Phelps Richard